Millions of children are going without dental care in England, research reveals

The research estimated the number of children who weren’t seen by an NHS dentist in the year to March 2024, based on the latest data from the NHS.

This includes nearly one million children in the southeast of England alone. This means almost half of all children in the region have not seen a dentist in the past 12 months. This is a trend across the country, with 44.6 per cent of children not seeing a dentist in the last year.

In Hackney, 62.3 per cent (nearly two in three) of children had not seen an NHS dentist in the past year, more than anywhere else in the country. Other areas with the highest rate of children not seeing NHS dentists in the past year include Herefordshire (61.7 per cent), Portsmouth (59.3 per cent) and Thurrock (58.54 per cent).